CRIME AND ARTIFICIAL SOCIETY 171
day lie was set free. I had already seen a boy and an old woman whose crimes had been as cold-blooded and premeditated as crimes could be ; and now Colonel Falkland told me that at this moment at Kyrenia three men were under sentence of death for a murder of which the only motive was robbery, and which had been planned for days and had been resolved on for weeks beforehand.
And yet, even among these dark clouds, a touch of whimsical simplicity stole like a faint thread of light, and relieved my mind by at last justifying a laugh. One of the three men whom I have just mentioned fled, after the murder, to the hut of a lonely shepherd, and begged to be kept there in hiding. The shepherd, who had only a slight acquaintance with him, asked why he wished to be hidden. On this the murderer, more like a child than a man, explained everything in the most naïve manner possible. The shepherd looked grave. He said that this was a serious matter, and that under the circumstances his protection would have to be paid for. The murderer replied that the booty had not yet been divided. 81 have no money,' he said, ' but save me, and I will steal a sheep for you.'
With this anecdote Colonel Falkland left me. He went to his office, and I sat in the garden alone, feeling as if the burden of life, which I thought I had left in England, had again laid its hands on me, like a bailiff on an absconding

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